Back To The Surface
by frustracean
Summary: Six young monsters find themselves on the surface. They have no idea why or how they're there, but they're there, alright. And even worse- they're not going to be able to get back any time soon. With the help of a few friendly humans, and the trouble from a few less friendly ones, they fight their way back to their true home. Discontinued. Also cringeworthy; please don't read this.
1. The Surface

**hOI! Temmie here!**

 **This is my first story in a long time, so excuse me if my writing's a bit... well, you know! cx**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale or Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Temmie, Napstablook and Alphys, but it'd be cool if I did.**

 **This story speaks of five young monsters who, after a little incident, find themselves on the surface in the human world. There, they meet lots of new people- some of them are a valuable and perhaps vital aid to their mission of returning home, but others are a little less... friendly. Join Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Napstablook and of course, Temmie, as they journey through the world above.**

SANS

Something was wrong, he knew that much.

But whatever that thing was, he just couldn't put his phalanx on it.

Oh, right, that was it.

He was awake, but he couldn't see.

On the other hand, he could hear. What he heard was not much, but he still gripped onto it like Tarzan grips his vine. All he heard was incoherent mumbling. "Mmmmnnnuhhh... RAH! DIE, PUNK!"

Decidedly, Undyne was there too.

Sans gave a large internal sigh. That just seemed to exacerbate everything. The dull throbbing in the back of his skull which he hadn't noticed before erupted into a plethora of pain. Thankfully, due to his famously laid-back attitude, Sans was somewhat an expert at equanimity. He steadied his mind as the pain dimmed down, a wave of relief surging through his bones.

He lifted his heavy eyelids, revealing the two glowing orbs of light residing in his sockets. Yet he still saw only darkness.

That's when he remembered the awkward position he was in. He was slumped against a... wall... with his legs sticking upward and his face pressed against the ground. He manoeuvred himself around until he was sitting up. It was still pretty dark, but he could now make out where they were. Some sort of deep ditch. Passing his gaze around the hole, he saw Undyne, in the same position he was in now. Her eyelids were snapped shut, yet she was murmuring angrily and waving her arms, as if to ward off an unwanted attacker. Leaning against her was Alphys. Something about that made Sans smile.

A pang of worry and guilt hit Sans like a freight train. Papyrus. Where was he?

Sans let out an unintentional maudlin sob. He'd sworn to always look after his little bro. So where _was_ he? Sans didn't remember what the events were that had led to them being here, but he sure hoped it didn't involve Papyrus'...

He couldn't finish that sentence.

And then, he saw the light.

He saw a glimmer of white.

White _bone_. Red fabric.

Sans leapt up and saw that his baby bones brother Papyrus was squashed against the wall. He wasn't hurt. He just looked asleep.

 _thank you thank you thank you thank you_

Sans kneeled down and gently brushed Pap's skull with the back of his hand, his bones rattling against it. Sans' eternal grin grew wider than ever before. His brother was safe. It was alright.

Papyrus exhaled gently and shifted himself against the wall. The light of the moon bounced off his skull. In this angle, Papyrus looked like the quintessence of childish innocence.

Waiiiiiit. The light of the _moon?_

Sans lifted his socket-orbs to the... sky?!

There it was. The big white sphere which every monster just dreamed of seeing. A dream which Sans might once have labelled as quixotic.

But it was there.

And the stars...

There were _so_ many stars. All glowing bright like night-lights in a dark, empty room.

It was utterly beautiful.

The almost romantic silence was shattered by a cheerful yelp. Huh?

Sans knew that yelp. Of course. There was another monster here.

Sans' grin widened as Temmie the tem looked up at him, tail wagging incessantly.

"hOI sens!1" Temmie exclaimed. "wher r wE?"

"i dunno, tem." _i just sure as hell hope we're not dead._ Temmie jumped into Sans' arms, sensing his worry.

"don wORY sens!1" Temmie yelped, nestling into his bony thorax. "we oKAY huh!?"

"yep. i'll get us outta here. but we're in a real... _hole-y_ mess."

"sens, if U mAK punz den u put tEM down."

"heh. i'll _ditch_ the puns for now."

"SENZ!"

Sans chuckled to himself. That's when he knew he'd been lying earlier. He did know where they were. He had no idea how they'd got there, but he knew they were there. They were at the surface. The land of the humans. The world above.

"GNNAHH! DIE, PUNK!"

Undyne was stirring. She stopped attacking the air (even before her awakening her actions had been getting slower and clumsier) and opened a single yellow eye. "Huh?"

Sans walked over to her - not that there was a lot of space to move in - and grinned at her. "hey undyne."

Undyne snarled, revealing her sharp teeth. She opened her other eye. "UGH. It's you, punk. What are you doing standing over me anyway?! GET OFF!"

Sans took a step back, careful not to step on Papyrus. "yeah, there are kind of more pressing matters at hand."

"SUCH AS?"

"we're on the surface."

"WHAT?!"

Temmie looked up at Sans, a worried look on her face. "sENZ? r we on sURFIS?/"

"think so, tem. look up."

Undyne jumped up in one brusque and swift movement, causing Alphys to fall headfirst on the floor. The latter woke up with a start. "U-Uhh... Where are we?"

A little white ghost materialized in the midst of the impending chaos, causing everyone to give a slight scream in alarm.

"...oh...sorry...i shouldn't have come..."

Napstablook the ghost hung his head down in shame.

"don't sweat it, blooky. we're all a little jumpy right now."

Napstablook looked up at Sans. "...so i didn't shock anyone?"

" _scare-_ cely."

"DON'T YOU DARE MAKE ANY PUNS, PUNK!"

"sENZ! nO puns!1"

"heh. i'm kidding."

Alphys took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, sitting up. "W-where are we?"

"the surface, i think. look up. there's the ... the moon... and the stars..."

Everyone looked up and there was a collective taking of sharp breaths due to the beauty of the celestial world.

"W-why are we here?" Alphys asked shyly, putting her glasses back on to grasp a better view of the sky.

"that's anybody's guess."

"So it's me, Alphys, Napstablook, you and Temmie, stuck in a hole?" Undyne asked, leaning towards Sans somewhat angrily.

"nope. pap's here too."

Undyne rolled her eyes. "Naturally. You two skele-punks go everywhere together, don't you, huh?"

Sans just shrugged. The question didn't deserve an answer. "let's just be quiet, or he'll wake up."

"I-Isn't that a good thing?" Alphys questioned, Sans shook his head.

"he hasn't been sleeping very well lately. i'm kinda running out of bedtime stories to read him."

"You STILL read him BEDTIME STORIES?"

"he's little, undyne."

"When I was his age, I was suplexing BOULDERS, not following the adventures of fluffy bunny through frickin' fairy land!"

"that's just you, undyne."

"tEM hungry," Temmie suddenly announced. Sans then noticed how famished he was.

"me too."

"Meh. Yeah."

"I-I'm hungry too..."

"...don't worry about me..."

Sans looked back up to the opening of the hole. "if we get on each other's shoulders, we might be able to work together and get out."

Undyne snorted. "Good luck with THAT, shorty!"

"i am not short."

"Yeah? How come your brother's practically your height?"

"leave him out of this."

"What?! I'm not even-"

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!1!" Temmie screamed, much to everyone's surprise. "we r al gona NEVR get out iF U KEP rguing!1!1!"

"she's right," Sans admitted. "let's concentrate on getting out. uh, blooky, you can float out, right?" The little ghost nodded. Sans gave a sigh of relief.

"ok, that's blooky sorted. right. i'm gonna wake paps up." He put Temmie down on the floor and walked over to his younger brother, who was curled up against the wall. He gently shook his shoulders. "hey, paps? d'ya hear me?"

Papyrus stirred. Sans shook his shoulders again. "paps? papy? you here?"

Papyrus' eyes opened. "Sans?"

Sans' grin widened. "yeah, it's me. it's ok bro. you're ok."

"SANS? W-where am I?"

"don't worry about that. just come with me, bro."

"O-OK, Sans. I'll come." Papyrus reached his arms out for Sans to pick him up. Sans hoped the tears in his eyes weren't visible.

He heard Undyne make retching noises in the background and decided to ignore them. He pulled Papyrus up to his feet. Undyne was right. Papyrus was five years younger than him, yet he was practically his height. Huh. Maybe he _was_ a little short...

"ok, uh. alphys, you're gonna have to, uh, get on undyne's shoulde-"

Before he finished his sentence, Alphys leapt up. "I-I can do that!"

Sans tried to control his grin, but even his sense of self-control admitted it was pretty cute. "ok, um. you, uh, you do that, right? alphys, you gotta climb out then. wait, uh. take Temmie with ya." He picked up the small monster and passed her to Alphys with ease. "ok. blooky, you ok up there?"

"yeah..." Napstablook replied shyly. "...i don't see anything... just trees..."

 _trees. maybe we're in a forest. huh._

Alphys was now balancing on top of Undyne's shoulders, blushing furiously. She grabbed the side of the hole, pulling herself up and hooking her leg over it. She lifted her other leg and stumbled back. "I-I'm up!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Y-You guys, I'm up!"

"It was still a stupid plan!" Undyne snarled, narrowing her eyes at Sans' grin.

"ok, undyne. get paps up now." He ignored Undyne's eye-roll. "just do it, ok?"

Undyne muttered unflattering things under her breath as Sans helped Papyrus onto her shoulders. Alphys helped the younger skeleton up. "H-He's up!"

"my turn now."

"What? No."

"undyne."

"No way!"

"undyne, just do it."

"What if I don't?"

"or else."

"Or else WHAT?!"

"or else you're gonna have a bad time."

The glowing white orbs in his eyesockets flared blue, but didn't burst into flame. Undyne eyed him and frowned. "Fine. But do it quickly, punk!"

"thanks a billion."

He started to climb up onto Undyne's shoulders, hoisting himself up onto the side with Alphys and Papyrus' help. He dusted himself off and looked around. Napstablook was right; all they saw were trees, and, well, the moon and the stars.

"HELP ME UP, PUNKS!"

Sans leant down and grabbed Undyne's hand He almost recoiled at the touch of the scales, but stopped himself. "alphys, paps, help me pull her up."

"I'm not THAT heavy!"

"you kind of are."

"Are you implying I'm fat? If I'm fat, what are-"

"no, you're just... stronger than everyone else."

"Huh! Get on with it, punk!"

Alphys held onto Sans' ribs and Papyrus wrapped his arms around Alphys' tail. They all pulled and with the collective force used managed to hoist Undyne onto the side with them. Sans looked back up at the trees.

"...i think i... hear something..."

"what is it, blooky?"

"tEM hear sumthin 2!1"

Sans strained his ears- or rather, that's what he would've been doing, had he possessed ears. Blooky and Tem were right, there was a distant sound audible in the clear night's silence. It sounded like... like music.

"maybe there's a party or something."

Papyrus gripped Sans' wrist. "Sans," he whisper-shouted. "Are humans dangerous?"

 _i don't know, bro._ "nah, man. i'm sure they're fine."

"FINE?!" Undyne exploded. "THEY'RE EVIL! THEY GOT US STUCK IN THE UNDERGROUND IN THE FIRST PLACE! DID YOU EVEN PAY ATTENTION IN HISTORY CLASS?!"

"undyne, shut up!"

"I'M GOING TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF EVERY HUMAN WHO DARES TRY AND APPROACH US!"

"undyne, shut the hell up! and don't speak like that in front of paps."

"W-We shouldn't fight," Alphys reminded them. "I-If Undyne's right, then we should k-keep our voices l-l-low."

"...i think someone's... there..."

Sans whipped his skull around to see. He hoped, hoped, _hoped_ that Blooky was wrong.

Papyrus' grip tightened. "I... Sans... I'm..."

"don't worry, bro. i'm scared too," Sans whispered back. He wasn't about to make some stupid act of bravado. He couldn't hide it.

"No... I'm not scared! I'm the Great Papyrus!" Papyrus whispered back with too much enthusiasm. Sans grinned back at him.

"you sure are, bro."

Sans turned his head back to the trees. He noticed that the others had gone deathly quiet, almost as if they were holding their breath. Amidst the silence, accompanying the faint music, rustling was heard in the trees. _someone's there._

The rustling continued, then stopped abruptly, as if whoever it was realised something. The trees slowly parted, to reveal...

Everyone screamed.

 **Sorry it was so long. cx**

 **For future reference:**

 **Sans, Alphys and Blooky are twelve. Papyrus and Temmie are seven. Undyne is thirteen.**

 **Thank you so much for reading. o-o**

 **Constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as any feedback you have. If I get a few views/reviews, I'll continue it. cx Even if I don't, I'll continue- it's great fun writing this! :D**

 **bOI!**

 **~Temmie**


	2. The Humans

**hOI!**

 **Naww, you guys are the best. cx I didn't expect to get more than 5 views or anything (I suppose that's due to new stories being on the first page though x3). And thank you so much for your reviews! I will definitely continue. Thanks guys! Note: I will spell most words in British English, since I am British. But characters will say them in American English, because this is set in America. Thanks!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale or Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Temmie, Napstablook and Alphys. If I did own Undertale, Frisk would probably be a llama.**

PAPYRUS

The Great Papyrus was scared.

More than scared. He was paralyzed in fear, nervously awaiting whatever was supposed to happen next.

Then he saw who they were, and relaxed a little. He only screamed to fit in, of course.

Monsters!

A skeleton, no less! And two identical looking zombies, plus a ... fairy?

He hoped Sans didn't make another perfunctory job of introductions, like he always did.

Sans stepped forward. "oh, thank god. sorry about that. we're stuck on the sur-"

"Beat it, punk! Those aren't monsters!" Undyne exclaimed, with no little amount of vitriol poured into her words.

Sans took another look at them, and his cheekbones flushed blue. "oh crap. sorry. sorry."

Papyrus was confused. Of course these intruders were monsters! He looked up at Sans so he could elucidate.

Everyone else was dead silent.

The skeleton who had been spying on them removed their... removed their... their skull.

Now, Papyrus saw that this was no skeleton. This was some feeble attempt at resembling a skeleton. A forgery! A fake! An imposter!

It was a human. A human girl, with long, straight brown hair, eyes of a similar colour, and a magenta and blue striped shirt.

"Oh my God," she breathed. "Are you guys real?"

The monsters exchanged awkward glances. The two zombies yelled, "AWESOME!" in perfect synchronisation. They rushed forth, pulling off their own faces. This was all very strange. Papyrus wanted to interfere no more with humans if their idiosyncrasies involved dressing up as monsters.

The zombies were two small boys. Only the fairy stayed behind.

Sans cleared his throat. "erm..."

The girl walked towards them. "Wow, you guys are real! I knew those old stories were true! What are you doing here, then?"

"uh."

"U-Umm..."

"...uh..."

"tem dunnO!1"

The fairy then proceeded to scream. It was shrill and bloodcurdling, and it chilled Papyrus' bones and filled him with malaise.

"Abby, shut up, shut up! Don't be scared!" the older girl whisper-shouted at the fairy, in an apparent attempt to calm her down.

"MOOOOOONSTERS!" the fairy continued, projecting her voice across the whole world, Papyrus speculated.

"She's only five," the elder girl explained, as if apologising. "She's a real scaredy-cat sometimes. Abby, will you shut your mouth?"

The fairy shut her mouth obediently, but screamed again from the inside.

The two ex-zombies sighed in unison. "Shut up, Abby!" one said.

"Yeah! Shut up, Abby!" followed the other.

The girl in the striped shirt smiled as if to say, _What can you do?_

"As I was saying. I'm Lark. Lark Wilson. The twins are Shaun and Paul, my cousins. Paul and Shaun, whichever way it is. And that little screaming fairy over there? Their sister, Abby. Anyway. Who are you guys?"

LARK

At first, she thought they were normal.

Just trick-or-treaters, like her. Very fancy costumes, yeah, but trick-or-treaters nonetheless. Boy, she was wrong.

Lark's parents had ordered her to take her cousins trick-or-treating. Not that Lark minded. Her classmates thought she was babyish, but Lark adored stories and legends and Halloween and _everything_ kids took for granted. She was thirteen and although she didn't exactly believe in Santa, she still made an effort to be extra-good at Christmas time.

So they decided to explore the more obscure parts of Ebott, her home town. The neighbourhood she'd never been in before, the one surrounded by trees.

Then they heard something behind the trees. Voices. _Raised_ voices. An argument. Lark, being of her notoriously curious nature, decided to investigate.

Abby had whined and complained until they were sure they'd never hear the end of it. Lark didn't like being mean, she didn't _dislike_ Abby. But the girl really did not facilitate her job.

So they'd gone on over anyway. Hiding behind the trees, they caught snippets of the conversation. One of them sounded quite angry, and Lark was then starting to doubt whether or not this was a good idea.

But then Abby had started rustling the leaves on purpose. She'd whispered too loudly, her voice thick with acrimony and laced with venom. She wanted to ruin Lark's day.

But then she knew for sure they'd heard Abby's noise-making. Oh well. What did she have to lose?

She pushed apart the trees, and everyone screamed.

She supposed it wasn't their physical appearances that scared her; anybody would mistake them for trick-or-treaters at first glance; but just that instinctive built-in defence mechanism.

The first one she saw was the skeleton.

He was pretty small and very thin, which is really what should have been expected from skeletons. A red scarf was wrapped around him as a cape. Even though Lark was pretty sure skulls could not portray emotion, he looked terrified.

He was gripping the wrist of a slightly taller skeleton. Although being taller than the other, he was still very short. This one was much bigger-boned than the other one. Lark supposed that really was a thing. He wore a blue hoodie, black shorts, and... pink slippers? Despite the circumstances, Lark found that quite comical.

White orbs of light shone in his eye-sockets. The orbs were glued to Lark's face, slowly widening in shock.

Behind them stood a tall girl with blue, scaly skin. Her red hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, and her eyes were yellow and reptilian. She looked tense, like she was holding in a Mt Vesuvius-sized eruption of anger inside her. Like she'd beat anyone up if they even breathed.

Next to the blue girl was a little yellow dinosaur-like creature. She wore a pink dress and a bow was secured on the side of her head. Her round glasses were pink-rimmed (Lark had at this point decided this one liked pink). She looked very nervous.

Then, on the floor at their feet, there was an adorable looking creature. It was like a cross between a puppy and a kitten, with shoulder length black hair.

A little white ghost came to Lark's attention. She hadn't noticed it before. It was as if it had faded out from existence, and just materialized back. It looked kind of like the ghosts from Pac-man, just with huge, sad eyes.

The taller, stouter skeleton spoke. "oh, thank god. sorry about that. we're stuck on the sur-"

The blue fish-like girl rolled her eyes. "Beat it, punk! Those aren't monsters!"

The skeleton took a good look at them. "oh, crap. sorry. sorry."

Lark couldn't believe it. Actual, real life monsters!

After a long moment of confusion, screaming, and shushing, introductions were finally made.

The tallest skeleton cleared his throat. He raised a brow-bone. _Wait, how does he do that?_

"i'm sans."

"I-I'm Al-Alphys..."

"hOI! i'm tEMMIE!1!"

"...napstablook..."

"Do I have to?"

"undyne, just do it," Sans sighed.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm Undyne, like that punk just said."

Everyone looked at the smaller skeleton.

He looked horribly shy. The taller one gave him a patient grin, and that did it. The cape-wearing skeleton seemed to be filled with determination.

"I am the Great Papyrus!" he proclaimed to the world. Something about that was so cute Lark couldn't help herself from smiling.

"Awesome! Well, uh, what are you guys doing here?"

"that's what we don't know. we just found ourselves here for some reason, with no memory of the recent past."

"You have no idea why you're here, or how?"

"nope. i guess it's amn- _esia_ to say it that way."

"sENZ, no pun!1"

"sorry, i guess you could say i _forgot_ about that."

'The Great Papyrus' made a frustrated noise. "SANS! NO PUNS!"

Sans' grin widened, which Lark couldn't fit her head around. How did that even work? And something about these skeletons was wrong. They didn't seem very... er, anatomically correct.

"This is SO COOL!" Paul and Shaun yelled at exactly the same time, before covering their mouths in sync. "Whoops!" A fit of giggling followed closely.

"I don't think you're going to be very safe out here. Why don't I let you stay in my house?" Lark proposed.

"B-But we have to get _home_ ," Alphys reminded them.

"alphy's right. our main objective is to get home."

"But - you're the first monsters I've ever met!"

"Punk, we got more important things to do!"

"Well, how do you get home?" Paul asked. Or maybe it was Shaun.

"W-We don't know... but we'll work something out, w-won't we?"

Everyone looked up at Sans.

"uh... sure. of course we will."

Undyne snorted. "Why is everyone looking up to _him_?! _I'm_ the leader around here!"

The other monsters took a while to think over that.

"Because he is my big brother!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"If I was YOUR big brother, would you look up to me?" Undyne retorted.

"why? are you a guy, undyne?"

"No!"

Alphys blushed profusely. "W-We should just concentrate on getting somewhere safe. I-It might take a long time to get home, s-so we should stay so-somewhere before we t-try."

Lark smiled. "You can come and stay at my place! My cousins stay there too, their parents are on vacation. The attic's pretty big, my parents won't notice. How about it?"

"eh. what do you others think?"

"p! tem wana... goto hous!"

"...i don't mind..."

"I-I think we should."

"The Great Papyrus thinks we should do it!"

"WHATEVER! LET'S JUST GET ON WITH IT!"

Sans turned back to Lark. "sure, we'll come." He seemed to frown. "where's ya fairy? did she fly away or something?"

"What?" Lark asked, momentarily confused. _Abby!_ "Oh, God! Wait here, all of you!"

SANS

Sans wasn't sure if he trusted Lark. And her idea was a little risky.

What if this was a trap, and she was a monster-hater? What if humans really were the cruel, heartless creatures history class had made them out to be?

Sans _really_ did not want to find out.

He just wanted to get home. Was that too much to ask? What had he done to deserve this?

Lark and the twins sped off to look for Abby. This was a perfect opportunity to bring up his suspicions.

"guys, i'm not sure we can trust them."

"But brother, they were so nice!"

"i know, paps, but we can't be sure."

"I-It's our best chance," Alphys explained. "If w-we stay out here, someone- someone who _really_ h-hates monsters- might find us."

"THEN LET'S JUST HURRY HOME, YOU PUNKS!"

"it's not that simple, undyne. we're in a real mess of a situation. if we go, we might end up as store decorations. if we stay, we might end up as dog food. especially me and paps."

"...i think we should... try... but don't listen to me..."

"tem tink we shOULDA go!1"

Sans looked at the others. "i don't know. we might end up as dead meat. this might be one big mis- _steak_. sure you want to _brisket_ _?_ "

"SANS!"

"OH MY GOD, PUNK!"

"sENZ!"

"Th-that was re-really bad, Sans, b-but I think w-we should."

"well, there you have it. we're gonna risk it for a biscuit." A pause. "we're absolutely _crackers_ , ya know?"

 **Thanks for reading! cx**

 **Sorry if my writing's not up to standard, I was a little rushed when writing this. Feedback would be very much appreciated. Thanks, guys! :D**

 **bOI!**

 **~Temmie**


	3. The Paranoia

**hOI!**

 **Nyeh heh heh, I haven't update in a while, if a few days can count as a while. But I decided it was time to update again. o3o**

 **Thank you so much those of you who have reviewed/followed/favourite this, I don't think it really deserves it though. owo**

 **cx Onto the story, I suppose! For future reference, expect an erratic updating timetable like this- I might even update twice in a day then not again for a few millennia. Life's a bit hectic at the moment, so forgive me please. .3.**

 **This is probably super badly written, but I was again quite rushed, so, eh, sorry. xD**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or any affiliates. I wish I did, though.**

UNDYNE

Undyne had a bad feeling about this.

She had a bad feeling about a lot of things, yeah. But this was different. Humans were EVIL! THEY trapped the innocent monsters in the underground! Personally, Undyne didn't see a single cogent argument for why she shouldn't strike the goddamn things dead. Sure, they didn't seem too intent on ripping their brains out or anything, but one of Undyne's rules was not to trust any old person. Especially if they're a human. In her book, humans were just harbingers of Trouble - with a capital T.

The trees parted once more, and the humans reappeared. The small one with wings looked reluctant to attend the conversation. Hang on, since when did humans have _wings?_ After a moment of careful thought, Undyne figured out it was probably a costume, just like the others'. Why the hell did humans dress as monsters anyway?! What was the friggin' point?! _They're just a bunch of punks,_ Undyne snarled to herself. This exact thought often recurred when she was around... well, anybody.

The taller human gave them another apologetic smile. "Sorry, she, ah... panicked. I'm really sorry, honestly. She's not usually this rude."

The smallest human's bottom lip wavered as she seemed to stifle a sob. Undyne unintentionally rolled her eyes. Not only were humans evil, but they were weaklings, too?

Sans just grinned back at the girl- not like his stupid face had any other expression. "heh, don't worry about that. but... about the... plan, i guess you could call it that."

"You guys should totally come!" an overexcited voice piped up from the human girl's side. One of the two twins, whatever they were called.

"Yeah! Totally! It's gonna be so cool," his brother agreed. "I can't wait!"

Lark (Undyne thought that was her name, she hadn't really been listening when they'd all introduced each other) just smiled hopefully, her eyes gleaming with childish excitement. "So... are you going to come?"

Sans glanced at the others. "yeah?"

"yiS!1!" Temmie yelped, vibrating intensely. If she continued, her face would float right off her body.

Alphys, Papyrus and Napstablook all agreed, albeit with less enthusiasm. Undyne simply shrugged. She didn't want to go, but she supposed they had no choice. Not like she had a freakin' say in anything anymore, what with Sans and his leader act.

Before anything else could happen, Undyne brusquely grabbed Sans' arm and pulled him away from the discussion. Apparently, Sans was smarter than he looked, because he didn't fight back.

"Listen, punk," Undyne whisper-shouted indelicately. "How do you know those freaks aren't tricking us?"

"c'mon, undyne. did you see how nice they are?" Sans countered. It seemed to Undyne that he was pouring as much of his laidback attitude into his words, as if to cover up irritation.

"It could be an act!"

Sans raised a brow-bone. "what are the chances? come on. i'll stake my reputation on it."

"You don't HAVE a reputation, Sans!"

"nope, but i'm hoping to acquire one after this."

"NGAHH! Shut up! Let's just go back and get the hell on with it!"

Sans' eternal grin widened as they headed back. "heh, alright. sorry about that. undyne, uh, had some pressing matters to talk about. she's a bit paranoid, so-"

"I AM _NOT_ PARANOID!"

"sure you aren't."

Insults flew back and forth, snide remarks from Undyne clashed with bad puns from Sans. Voices (mainly Undyne's, Sans kept his usual low tone) were raised as the others attempted to hush them forcefully. Not that she was paying any attention. She was going to _explode,_ right in his stupid face!

Alphys gulped and stepped back. So did Napstablook- they too probably wanted to evade any involvement in the argument. Temmie watched on, yelping intermittently. She looked eager for a fight.

The humans also obviously thought it wise not to interfere- perhaps they were less stupid than she thought. Only Papyrus remained close.

"SANS, U-UNDYNE, STOP FIGHTING!"

Every head turned to the smaller skeleton, who was currently trembling next to the two arguing monsters. Everything fell silent. Anger reigned on Papyrus' features, to be pushed over and sat upon by some sort of fear.

The harsh light from the glowing orbs in Sans' eyes softened as they took a kind tone. Undyne narrowed her eyes, but kept her mouth shut. Sans was a huge punk, but she was willing to listen to Papyrus a bit more. "Fine."

"we weren't fighting, bro. we're just a bit tense right now."

The humans exchanged awkward glances, obviously unsure of what to do. "We'll leave you all to... ah, sort it out," Lark suggested. Undyne was grateful for that.

As they left, Undyne noticed that the little girl looked even more terrified than before. She felt a twinge of pity before frowning. Pity for a human?!

When they were gone for sure, Undyne turned towards Sans. "You! You are a total, total... there isn't even a word to describe how totally whatever-it-is you are, but you're a total one!"

"whatever, undyne. just chill."

Something in his tone made her realise it was a pun. She noticed how cold the night breeze was and scowled.

Before she could react, Alphys made a gesture for attention. "W-we have to s-stop fighting..."

"she's right. if we don't, we won't get out of this in one piece. or if we do, it's gonna be one big flat piece."

"S-SANS?" Papyrus asked nervously. "Are we going to... to die?"

"nah, bro. no way."

"...i think they're still listening..."

Six heads turned towards the line of trees in almost perfect synchronisation. Great! The humans were obviously not as smart as she originally thought. They were just double-crossing little vermin.

"doesn't matter," Sans informed them. "we're not saying anything important."

"hOOManz can come out!" Temmie announced loudly. No reply came.

"Maybe they're not there," Papyrus mused. "Maybe they've gone for- forever!"

"uh, lark?" Sans said, his voice clotted with doubt. "are you there?"

"YOU HERE, PUNKS?"

Temmie trotted off towards the trees. "hOOMan?"

Once more, no reply was heard.

 _And now they've ditched us! This just gets BETTER AND BETTER!_

Undyne gave a frustrated snort. "They're probably behind the stupid trees, you idiots." To prove her point, she pushed apart the branches and leaves, revealing...

Nothing.

They weren't there.

All that was behind the foliage was another hill. The music which they had heard previously seemed louder now, and much closer.

Straining her eyes to see, Undyne saw lights from behind the hill. Without thinking, she stomped towards them. What she saw momentarily cut her breath.

"what is it, undyne?" Sans' voice came from behind her.

"I think... we're screwed."

 **Thanks for reading! cx**

 **This chapter was shorter than normal due to a.) lack of ideas that made sense, b.) lack of ideas that didn't involve Flying Spaghetti Monsters and finally, c.) lack of proper time to write it in. xD**

 **Sorry if this wasn't satisfactory or under-standard, as I said, reasons are forcing me into writing badly. Damn you, reasons!**

 **Anyway, thanks again for reading. :D**

 **bOI!**

 **~Temmie**


	4. The Town

**hOI!**

 **Whoops, haven't updated in a while. I've been kind of busy doing ... ah, stuff, I suppose. I did marry Mettaton, though. (Please don't ask.)**

 **Thank you so much all of those who have read/reviewed/etc.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale. In case you hadn't realised. Not even sure why I keep doing this. Oh well. xD**

SANS

For some unfathomable reason, Sans was not expecting what he next saw.

It was, indubitably, a human town. But Sans hadn't anticipated it to look so... to be so...

In fact, he wasn't sure what he'd anticipated. Anything but... this.

It was so ... big. And bright, despite the natural darkness of the night. It was a big, bright, bright, big town.

And the amount of humans was, quite frankly, overwhelming.

Sans mentally scolded himself. What had he expected? There to be, say, four humans? For God's sake, it was a well known fact that the human community was much larger than the Underground's inhabitants. But up here, on the surface, it came as a bit of a shock to see so many humans grouped together.

And they weren't ALL grouped together! They travelled in little clumps, larger ones too, so it seemed - veritable legions of them. And Sans would've been ready to bet his right femur that the chance of all these humans being friendly was slimmer than anorexic roadkill.

So far, only he and Undyne had seen the town. Obviously, the others were going to have to see at some point, and Sans didn't see much reason why they shouldn't. So he let them past him.

"...o-oh..." Blooky said softly, their eyes simultaneously widening and shining. "w-what is it..."

Alphys, mouth agape, stared in awe at the low yet audible buzz of the town below. The music they had previously heard was now clear. It was fast and had a rather cheerful albeit "spooky" quality to it. "O-oh my God!" Alphys whispered.

"SANS! Is that a.. a human town?" Papyrus asked, his voice a mixture of excitement and doubt. Sans nodded in response. He saw Temmie jump up out of the corner of his eye socket. Ever ebullient, she yelped fervently: "tEM goto hooman town!1!"

"uh, yup. but tem no go to human town if we don't find those humans..."

"I TOLD YOU, PUNK!" Undyne erupted in a sudden outburst of exasperated anger. "THEY ABANDONED US, LIKE THE DOUBLE-CROSSING, SNEAKY LITTLE LIARS THEY ARE!"

"S-SANS? Did they abandon us?" Papyrus asked, a newfound fearfulness in his voice. He looked up to his brother and squeezed the latter's hand in his tenacious grip, not ever wanting to let go. Sans couldn't lie to his brother, but he couldn't bring himself to tell the truth. "i dunno, paps," he admitted. "they might just be there, y'know? maybe their fairy escaped again?"

No sooner had he said this that Lark Wilson, Paul, Shaun and Abby emerged from the foliage behind them. Lark's expression was thick with worry. "Are you guys okay?" she inquired, hesitantly lifting a hand to each to see if they were all real (yet she tactfully missed Blooky out on that one).

"yep," Sans answered, not wanting to worry anyone. "we were just, uh, enjoying the view."

Lark didn't doubt the explanation, simply regaining the light-hearted but almost fierce spark in her eyes, which Sans still found mildly unsettling. "What are we waiting for then, guys? Let's go!"

"YEAH!" Shaun and Paul exclaimed in unison. "Let's go!"

Unfortunately, Undyne decided to intervene. "Hang on, punk," she snarled, towering over Lark. "How can we be sure we can trust you, huh? WHAT IF YOU'RE LIKE THE OTHERS?"

Lark seemed dumbfounded by this question. Shaun and Paul gingerly regarded her as she answered. "But - I..." She seemed almost on the verge of tears when Sans spoke.

"what's in it for her if she's tricking us, huh?" Sans asked the group, knowing all too well what was in it for her. "besides, it's our only option. let's go and... uh, yeah."

"...i - i think sans is r-right...?" Blooky said quietly. Temmie gave her opinion in a loud yelp. Alphys nodded shyly, Papyrus didn't need to answer, and Undyne simply felt obliged to go along. "Fine! BUT DON'T BLAME ME WHEN WE'RE -"

"yeah, yeah. ok, lark wilson. let's go."

They were about to set off when Alphys blushed bright red. "W-wait! W-w-what about the... the h-h-humans down th-there?"

Lark smiled up at them. "You're all wearing very convincing trick-or-treat costumes. Okay?"

Although trick or treat was for the most part an alien concept to the monsters, they went along with it. Sans was doubtful, however, but he kept his doubts to himself.

He threw a cautious look at the humans. Lark was obviously the eldest and the leader, although she seemed to be young for her age. Shaun and Paul were both incredibly hyperactive. Abby was ultimately silent apart from a few times where one of the monsters approached her, at which point she nervously cried out. Sans turned his attention back to the twins, who were right now headbutting each other. He took a subtle step back.

Lark beamed up at them all. "Let's go, guys!" she exclaimed, and the others followed her like a serpent of schoolchildren following a teacher. Sans quietly offered to carry his now apparently sleepy brother, but this suggestion was met with half-hearted indignation. "SANS! I am the G- the Great Papyrus! I don't need to be carried!"

Temmie, on the other hand, practically leapt into Sans' arms. Thankfully, she wasn't heavy - Sans was not in the mood to do that thing healthy people call "exercise". He preferred carrying light objects, or better- nothing at all.

Lark pushed apart some trees that were on the side of the hill, revealing several rocks jutting out from the grass, seemingly in place as makeshift steps. Both Shaun and Paul ignored these and simply slid down the steep slope, whooping with joy all the way. Lark sounded exasperated. "Guys, what did I say about that? It's not safe!" She turned to the others. "Ignore them - use the steps."

Sans took her advice and chose the more prudent approach. He let Undyne go first down the hill, though.

"prove you're a leader," he'd said. That was enough to send her all the way around the Earth and back.

Once she was down there, she emitted several roars of laughter. "COME DOWN HERE, PUNKS! OR ARE YOU TOO SCARED?!"

Lark grabbed Abby's hand and guided her carefully down the stairs, the latter seeming to hold back tears or a possible scream. Once they were down there, she called the rest over.

Blooky shyly floated down: "i d-don't want to w-weigh you down," they'd said.

Next was Alphys. Her face was burning crimson as she slowly but steadily made her way to the bottom, clinging for dear life onto the rocks. She sped up a little when Undyne shouted words of encouragement, most of which were rather threatening and all of which involved the word "nerd" and "punk".

Temmie jumped out of Sans' arms and _rolled_ down the hill in a blur of white, black, yellow and blue. She yelped happily when she arrived, to be then thoroughly inspected by the ever curious Shaun and Paul.

Sans literally picked Papyrus up and put him on his shoulders. Papyrus was getting almost too tall for this, and Sans wasn't growing much lately - it occurred to him that soon, they would never be able to do it again.

"well, paps... it's all _downhill_ from now."

"Put me down."

"heh, sorry," Sans said in guise of a makeshift apology as they slowly trotted downhill.

Once they were all in the same place, Lark spoke up. "Okay, guys, follow me. Try to stay as unseen as possible - your 'costumes' are VERY convincing, I guess you could say that. I'll get you to my house, then I can open the d-" A troubling thought seemed to appear in Lark's mind. "Uh, do you guys mind sleeping in a shed for a while? It's a big shed. There's nothing in it, but there are a few old mattresses. I think some pillows and blankets, too. I'm really sorry, it's just my parents-"

"don't sweat it. I can sleep anywhere."

Lark still looked strangely remorseful, even when the others assured her it was fine. "Are you sure? Then, I guess we can go..." She pulled her skeleton mask back on- everyone had forgotten about it by then - and Shaun and Paul did the same with their zombie heads. That still was kind of unnerving to Sans.

They walked through the human-monster filled streets in single file, before resorting to travelling in a clump as to remain inconspicuous. Sans put his hood on so that he would remain at least slightly unseen. Temmie, once more in Sans' arms, did her best to look fake, like a toy. Papyrus hid himself with his cape, Blooky went invisible, and Alphys just stood behind Undyne at all times so she was permanently covered from any passer-by's view.

Everything was going fine, until...

Someone saw them for who they truly were.

 **Thanks for reading! :D**

 **This chapter was shorter than normal again, sorry about that. Those darn reasons again!**

 **I'll try to update more often now, please forgive me if I don't. Anyway,**

 **bOI!**

 **~Temmie**


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